Filipe Pinto/ Ribeiro - DÉBUT

Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro

I-Tunes:

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) 

1-15 \"Pictures at an Exhibition\"

In memory of Viktor Hartmann

\"Quadros de uma Exposição\"

Em memória de Viktor Hartmann

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)

16-17 Two Poems, op.32 

Dois Poemas, op.32 

Dmitri Schostakovitch (1906-1975)

18-20 Three Fantastic Dances, op.5

Três Danças Fantásticas, op.5

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

21 (...Danseuses de Delphes) 

22 (...Les collines d’Anacapri)

23 (...Minstrels)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

24 Alborada del gracioso

Details:

Filipe PINTO-RIBEIRO, holds a “Doctor of Musical Arts”, with the highest honors, from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow. Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro is considered one of the most important musicians of his generation. 

He was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1975.

As a scholarship recipient of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro completed his doctoral and masters studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow under the orientation of Liudmila Roschina, chair of the Piano department.

Influenced by various teachers, he frequently attended international Master-Classes. He was recognized and guided by some of the most esteemed names in the international pianistic panorama, including Elisso Virsaladze and Dmitri Bashkirov. 

He graduated from the Superior School of Music and Performing Arts at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, in Portugal, 

The CD, Berlin Sessions, recorded in the in the German capital and containing sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, Carlos Seixas, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner and Sergei Prokofiev, obtained excellent critical and public acclaim.

His first CD, including works by Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Scriabin, Dmitri Shostakovich, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, is currently in its second edition.

Ref.: NUM 1118

RICHARD OKKERSE QUARTET - THAT OLD FEELING

I-Tunes:

Richard Okkerse - guitar
Hugo Gama - sax
Pedro Silva - double-bass
Filipe Monteiro - drums

Guests:
Ricardo Formoso - trumpet
Pedro Costa - piano

Recorded at Estúdio Garagem
28/12/2010 and 28/01/2011 
by:João Azevedo

Mastered at Estúdios Numérica by:
Fernando Rocha

www.richardokkersequartet.com

1. Body and soul 08’21’’
[Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton & Johnny Green]

2. All things familiar 06’27’’
[Dan Adler]

3. Blame it on my youth 08’28’’
[Oscar Levant & Edward Heyman]


4. Horace-scope 06’51’’
[Horace Silver]

5. That old feeling 07’08’’
[Sammy Fain]


Total: 37’10’’

Bio:

Born in Middelburg, The Netherlands October 1980, Richard started playing the guitar at the age of 10 under the influence of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana. By the time he reached 13 he got more and more interested in jazz & fusion, during this period performing and recording in various formations as a leader and sideman throughout Europe; Confusion, Not James Dean, Misty Jazz Band, Richard Okkerse/Rik Mol Quintet, Hugo Dirkson Quartet etc. At the age of 17 he was accepted at the Amsterdam University of Music where he studied jazz guitar with Jesse van Ruller, Maarten van der Grinten, Martijn van Iterson, Ed Verhoeff and participated in various master classes and workshops with Peter Bernstein, Bireli Lagrene, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Russell Malone, John Scofield, Philip Catherine, Scott Henderson and many others. In 2001 he graduated cum laude with a degree in jazz performance (jazz guitar/composition). At the moment Richard is living in Braga, Portugal and as an active musician he performed on a regular basis with his Acoustic Jazz Trio with Pedro Cravinho (Bass) and Filipe Monteiro (Drums) which came to an end in the beginning of 2010. Now Richard\\'s working with his new 4tet feat. Hugo Gama (sax), Pedro Silva (bass) and Filipe Monteiro (drums) they should record there debut cd in the near future. Besides performing he also works as a educator teaching jazz guitar, ensemble and theory classes at various schools such as Jazz ao Norte, Escola de Jazz do Porto, Jazz ao Minho, Flauta de Hamelin and the Conservatory of Famalicão.

Details:


Members:
Richard Okkerse (guitar) Hugo Gama (sax) Pedro Silva (bass) Filipe Monteiro (drums)
Influences:
Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Jesse Van Ruller, Martijn Van Iterson, Maarten Van Der Grinten, Peter Leitch, Joshua Breakstone, Reg Schwager, Don Thompson, Ed Verhoeff, Hein van de Geyn, Adam Rogers, Larry Koonse, Lorne Lofsky, Lage Lund, Joe Cohn, Joe Diorio, Howard Alden, Gilad Hekselman, Jim Hall, John Stowell, Bobby Broom, Bob Devos, Anthony Wilson, Agostino Di Giorgio, Bruce Forman, Steve Cardenas, Philip Catherine, Peter Bernstein, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Monder, Adam Rogers, Steve Cardenas, Lorne Lofsky, Jimmy Bruno, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Jonathan Kreisberg, George Benson, Bireli Lagrene, Sylvain Luc, Dan Adler, Rick Stone, Robben Ford, Dereck Trucks, Pat Martino, Rodney Jones, Tuck Andress, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Brad Mehldau, Joey Defrancesco, Mike Ledonne, Steve Davis, Kenny Garrett, Chick Corea, Michel Petrucciani and many more!


Ref.: NUM 1217

FESTIVAL CRIASONS

I-Tunes

OPUS ENSEMBLE - DUO CONTRACELLO 

QUARTETO LOPES-GRAÇA

A project

To bring to light and establish works of Portuguese musical creation is a cultural objective shared by the three founding groups of Musicamera - Opus Ensemble, Duo Contracello and Quarteto Lopes-Graça. 

It is increasingly important to continue this effort, in the name of which the Opus Ensemble, has taken Portuguese chamber music to the four corners of the world.

To privilege works of Portuguese authorship shows an awareness that, in the contemporary world, the identity of a people, especially in Europe / Nation, is defined, first of all, by their cultural values, which prevail over geographic and economic ones and lead to their full development and differentiation. It is not by chance that we find cultural activity to be among the five most productive economic sectors of the developed World.

We also consider that there does not exist any endogenous motive for the low interest demonstrated by the national public for their own “erudite” musical creation.

This trend is not verifiable in other related areas, such as theatre and dance, activities which have managed to find a permanent place in programming and audience preference.

It is our understanding that the fundamental reason for this detachment may be found in the incapacity that music has demonstrated in promoting and acquiring “discursive fluency” and visibility in the media, with the aim of getting closer to the general public and thereby reaching levels of consumption equivalent to those enjoyed by other national genders such as fado, jazz, Portuguese rock and other urban expressions.

To achieve this there are two essential conditions: a serious investment by the artists – both creators and performers – and a helping hand from the State with which to counteract the timidity of many programmers and cultural agents. That has been the attitude of the Ministry of Culture (Direcção Geral das Artes) and it allowed us to get were we are now. 

It is our belief that chamber music groups, in permanent dialog with other artistic expressions, are fundamental vehicles 

for the realization of this task using the versatility and economy of resources which are their privilege.

Details:

FESTIVAL CRIASONS - Tendências da Música de Câmara Portuguesa Contemporânea

OPUS ENSEMBLE

DUO CONTRACELLO

QUARTETO LOPES-GRAÇA

Sérgio AZEVEDO [Coimbra,1968]

Concertino de Câmara (2010) 

Obra dedicada ao Opus Ensemble

Estreia Mundial no Festival CRIASONS

1. Deciso (Ana Bela)

2. Mesto (Bruno)

3. Intermezzo gravíssimo (Alex)

4. Valsa (Olga) 

5. Finale (Pedro) 

Jorge COSTA PINTO [Lisboa, 1932]

6. Bi-tone Scherzo, op. 106 (2010) 

Obra dedicada ao Opus Ensemble

Estreia Mundial no Festival CRIASONS

Anne VICTORINO D’ALMEIDA [Poissy, França, 1978]

Quarteto da Serra D’Arga (2010) 

Obra dedicada ao Quarteto Lopes-Graça

Estreia Mundial no Festival CRIASONS

7. Andante

8. Scherzo – Tarantella

9. Moderato tranquillo

10. Vivace e Fuga

Jorge COSTA PINTO [Lisboa, 1932]

Quarteto de Cordas op. 104, nº 1, Fado Luso (2009) 

Obra dedicada ao Quarteto Lopes-Graça

Estreia Mundial no Festival CRIASONS

11. Andante

12. Allegro

Amílcar VASQUES-DIAS [Badim, 1945]

13. Prelúdio à Sesta das Cigarras (2010) 

Obra dedicada ao Quarteto Lopes-Graça

Estreia Mundial no Festival CRIASONS

Alexandre DELGADO [Lisboa, 1965]

Burlesca (1991/2)

Obra gravada pelo Duo Contracello em 1996, integrada no cd Num 1055

14. Animato

15. Presto

16. Poco meno presto

Ref.: NUM 1218

BACH - Solo Cello - Suites IV-V-VI

José Augusto Pereira de Sousa

iTunes 

Ref.: NUM 1146

António Rosado - PRELUDES - Luís de Freitas Branco / Armando José Fernandes

António Rosado

I-Tunes:

LUÍS DE FREITAS BRANCO (Lisbon, 1890 – 1955) 

Ten Preludes dedicated to Viana da Mota (1914-18)

Sonatina for piano (1922-23)

Four Preludes dedicated to Isabel Manso (1940)

It was Luís de Freitas Branco, towering figure of Portuguese music, who introduced modernism into the country. In the first two decades of the 20th-century, he embraced the most diverse tendencies of the time, displaying an awareness à la page rare in Portugal: before his stays in Berlin and Paris between 1910 and 1912, he had already written important works such as his 1st Sonata for violin & piano (which received the 1st prize in a composition contest presided by Viana da Mota), the post-Wagnerian symphonic poems Antero de Quental and Guerra Junqueiro, and the symbolist-tending trilogy La Mort, for voice and piano.

In 1913 the premiere of Paraísos Artificiais (Artificial Paradises from 1910) provoked a scandal in Lisbon; in that year, Luís de Freitas Branco wrote one of the most daring works of his time, Vathek. These two symphonic poems brought aspects of the avant-garde to Portuguese music: a pre-expressionist impressionism in Paradises; in Vathek, a true window is opened to the multiplicity of modernism, including an example of atonal micropolyphony which prefigures the 1960’s and 1970’s. Such daring extends to other works from the same period: the two atonal songs on poems of Mallarmé; the impressionist Preludes for piano and the String Quartet - pieces which may today be seen as a musical counterpoint to the modernism of Fernando Pessoa, Mário de Sá Carneiro, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso and Almada Negreiros.

Beginning in the decade of the 1920’s, Luís de Freitas Branco turned towards a new diatonicism and a unique type of neoclassicism - one inspired by Beethoven - already announced in the Concerto for violin (1916). With his four symphonies, written between 1924 and 1952, Freitas Branco consolidated a Portuguese symphonic style, which had until then, only been sporadic. Use of the Portuguese language is an important contribution of his abundant vocal production, where Camões and Antero de Quental may be seen as marked exponents of his profound Humanism. The Madrigais Camonianos for a cappella choir (1930-1949) are an original evocation of the very rich Iberian polyphonic tradition; and the sonnets of Antero for voice and piano, namely the cycle «A Ideia» (“The Idea”, 1943), must be included among the supreme creations of Portuguese music of the first half of the 20th-century.

The activity of Luís de Freitas Branco was multifaceted: important pedagogue (Joly Braga Santos was his close disciple); critic; musicologist; essayist; lecturer at conferences. As an author he wrote: the first treaty of musical sciences published in Latin countries (1922); works about the technique and history of music; studies about great figures in the art of sounds and about Portuguese music.

Anticipated by Mirages, which Luís Freitas Branco composed in 1911, the famous Preludes dedicated to to Viana da Mota are an important reflection of the impressionist aesthetic in Portugal. Extrapolating the harmonic sensuality of the Romantics, these 10 pieces explore new coloristic coordinates for the instrument, integrating acquisitions associated with Debussy such as the whole tone scale, chordal prolongation, non-tertian harmony, chordal planing (parallel movement) and the importance of resonance. Although some of the preludes date from 1914, the entire cycle was concluded and received its premiere in Lisbon in the summer of 1918, performed by its dedicatee.

The whole tone scale emerges directly in the atmospheric 1st Prelude (Moderate), over arpeggios of 9th-chords. The 2nd (Animated), in an energetic and dancing ternary meter, explores chords of the added sixth. No. 3, an ABABA form, alternates a pentatonic character, with harmonies built on fifths (A) and the whole tone scale (B). A modal flavor and fan-like writing mark the meditative 4th Prelude (Moderate), while the 5th (Lively), explores turbulent sixteenth-notes in a moto perpetuo also inhabited by the whole tone scale. Particularly contemplative, the Sixth Prelude (Moderately animated) is an ABA form, with practically atonal harmonies emerging in its B section to provide contrast to the liquid parallel fourths and the static perfect fifths of its A section. The 7th Prelude (Very moderate) explores languorous chords through prolongation, over an arching melody which attempts to take flight. In No. 8 (Very animated), incessant sextuplets of sixteenth-notes serve as the basis of a whole tone fanfare which gathers melodic élan, only calming itself in a slow coda, whose final two measures are an ironic and clowning negation. The melody in parallel fourths of the 9th Prelude (Moderate, not slow) planes over sensual arpeggios of added sixth and ninth chords, contrasting with the clean and fiery contours of the two brief B sections, in an ABABA form. The nimble 10th Prelude (Lively) epitomizes the coordinates of the cycle, with cells proliferating around an eighth-note moto perpetuo. 

The Sonatina represents a more neoclassic inclination, although very different form the Beethovenesque four symphonies, influenced probably by Ravel’s Sonatine of 1903. The first movement was published in the magazine A Semana Musical (The Musical Week) in 1923, with the title, Peça para Crianças (Piece for Children). The manuscript, undated, has “Piece for João” as its epigraph (his son was born on January 10th of the previous year). The version as Sonatina in three movements was published by Sassetti and neither manuscript nor published edition are dated.

Although João de Freitas Branco attributes 1930 as the the date of the Sonatina, a journal clipping dated “10/14/1923” (in Luís de Freitas Branco’s hand) is mentioned in the more recent edition of Sassetti: “Freitas Branco, our illustrious music critic, gives us, in a delicious “Sonatina” for piano, in three movements, the first Portuguese example of the sober style which marks the post-Debussy reaction. The author took advantage of the occasion to write, with his unique skill, using the major refinements of modernism including polytonality and atonality [!], a most simple work, a true Sonatina for children, as much in style as in technique. It represents, in our opinion, the resolution of one of the most difficult and interesting problems of modern art, in the ingenuous guise of a piece for the third year of the Conservatory.” [journal and author not identified].

According to the dating of this journal clipping, the Sonatina will most probably have been complete in 1922 or in the first half of 1923. The date of the premiere is indicated by João de Freitas Branco as 1930, interpreted by Maria Capucho, in Lisbon.

In this, the most miniature of works by the composer, we find a foreshadowing of the new modal orientation already in the first movement. More “geometric”, this orientation will be affirmed in the 2nd Sonata for violin. The Allegretto finale, in Rondo form, is perhaps the most Scarlattian moment in the music of Luís de Freitas Branco.

Written in 1940 and dedicated to the pianist Isabel Manso, these Four Preludes form a group completely different from the 10 Preludes dedicated to Viana da Mota. Stylistically, they emerge as a rare object within Freitas Branco’s production from the years 1930-40: an almost expressionist incursion in an elliptical and disturbing universe.

The premiere took place in 1940, by the dedicatee . Eighteen years later, a recital by the same pianist was mentioned by Nuno Barreiros: “The author once told us that the “Four Preludes” – short, synthetic, in a concentrated language – represent, within his work, a final resurrection of impressionism, the erasure of the last stains of that aesthetic, which so strongly marked the composer of “Artificial Paradises”. We experience such an impression now, through the fitting interpretation of Isabel Manso (…)” (unidentified publication, 11/24/1958).

The definition “a final resurrection of impressionism, the erasure of the last stains of that aesthetic” demands that we parse well the word “erase”. Impressionist traces are to be found in the 3rd prelude, inhabited by parallel fourths; in the remaining parts the parallel motion is of augmented 4ths and superpositions of 2nds - a deformed impressionism, with harmonies nearer to the Second Viennese School.

Alexandre Delgado

(Fredrick Gifford - translation)

Dez Prelúdios dedicados a Viana da Mota

1. I. Moderado 02’08’’

2. II. Animado 01’25’’ 

3. III. Moderado, não lento 03’06’’ 

4. IV. Moderado 02’14’’ 

5. V. Vivo 02’04’’

6. VI. Moderadamente animado 03’31’’ 

7. VII. Muito moderado 02’33’’ 

8. VIII. Muito animado 01’54’’ 

9. IX. Moderado não lento 03’12’’ 

10. X. Vivo 02’01’’

Sonatina 

11. I. Allegro moderato 01’13’’ 

12. II. Andante 01’08’’ 

13. III. Allegretto 01’41’’

Quatro Prelúdios dedicados a Isabel Manso

14. I. Andante 01’24’’ 

15. II. Animado 00’28’’ 

16. III. Moderato 01’05’’ 

17. IV. Presto 00’40’’

18. Prelúdio dedicado a António Arroyo 02’14’’

ARMANDO JOSÉ FERNANDES

Cinco Prelúdios Prelúdios, Op. 1

19. I. Prelúdio I 01’19’’

20. II. Prelúdio II 00’27’’ 

21. III. Prelúdio III 02’41’’

22. IV. Prelúdio IV 01’38’’ 

23. V. Prelúdio V 02’22’’

Total: 42’40’’

Ref.: NUM 1143

Coro de Câmara de Lisboa - a cappella | Eurico Carrapatoso

I-Tunes:

Ref.: NUM 1135

BACH Solo Cello - Suites I-II-III

José Augusto Pereira de Sousa

I-Tunes:

This Cd produced by Numérica at the request o Oporto City-Hall, collects the Bach Suites I-II-III, for solo cello, interpreted by José Pereira de Sousa. In this recording the interpreter plays the famous cello Montagnana, former property of the famous Portuguese cellist Guilhermina Suggia.

J. S. Bach 

SUITE I

em sol Maior | 20’42’’

SUITE II

em Ré menor | 22’41’’

SUITE III

Em Dó maior | 27’47’’

Details:

José Pereira de Sousa concluded the degree in cello in 1986 from the Conservatório de Música do Porto (Oporto Music Conservatory) with distinction.

Since 1982 he has been granted several awards, namely the Gulbenkian Prize, Eng. António de Almeida Prize (awarded by Fundação Eng. António de Almeida) and Guilhermina Suggia Prize, among many.

He attended the master classes of cello with Charles Medlan, Luis Legia and Paul Tortelier as teachers, and of chamber music with Albert Lysi e Maurice Raskin.

As a soloist he performed with the following orchestras: R. D. P. - Rádio Difusão Portuguesa (Oporto and Lisbon), Camerata do Porto, Regie Sinfonia, Orquestra Clássica do Porto (Oporto Classical Orchestra), Greek Juvenile Orchestra, Orchestra of the Festival Les Arcs, Orchestra of the European Communities and World Orchestra. He was violoncellist soloist of all these orchestras, except of R. D. P. - Rádio Difusão Portuguesa.

He has been developing an intense activity as a soloist in chamber music, namely with the Quarteto Suggia, Kora Ensemble, Quarteto Mosaico and Solistas do Porto (Soloists of Oporto), where he is Artistic Director. 

He recorded many times for R. D. P. – Rádio Difusão Portuguesa (the Portuguese state radio), R. T. P. – Rádio e Televisão Portuguesa (the Portuguese state television) and the record label Numérica. 

He had the pleasure of performing some recitals of Portuguese authors as it happened with the Sonatina of Claudio Carneyro, which was published with his revision.

Besides the frequent cooperation with the most prestigious Portuguese organizations of concerts, he has been repeatedly invited to perform abroad namely in France, Germany, Italy, Malta and Brazil.

He directs many courses of cello and cello pedagogy in Portugal and Brazil.

Today he is first cello of the Oporto National Orchestra, artistic director of the Jean Piaget Chamber Orchestra, teacher of cello and chamber music, and coordinator of the Master’s Degree in cello of the University of Aveiro.

He plays the Cavalieri and Montagnana cellos, which once belonged to the remarkable violoncellist Guilhermina Suggia.

Ref.: NUM 1134